them which comes from the hands of a professed author; and, generally speaking, it does him great credit. It is, at all events, a most useful book, containing the outlines of all that is known concerning Africa, and affording an excellent guide to all who wish to consult the works of African discovery, whether ancient or modern.

ART. VII. CHURCH MISSIONARY CONTROVERSY. 1. An Address to a Meeting holden at Bath, under the Presidency of the Hon. and Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Gloucester, on December 1, 1817, for the Purpose of forming a Church Missionary Society in that City; Word for Word as delivered from Writ ing with a Protest against the Establishment of such a Society in Bath. By the Rev. Josiah Thomas, A.M. Archdeacon of Bath. 8vo. pp. 16. Baldwin and Co. London, 1817. 2. A Defence of the Church Missionary Society against the Objections of the Rev. Josiah Thomas, M.A. Archdeacon of Bath. By Daniel Wilson, M. A. Minister of St. John's Chapel, Bedford Row. 8vo. pp. 44. Wilson. London, 1818.

3. A Letter to the Rev. Daniel Wilson, A.M. Minister of St. John's Chapel, Bedford Row, London, in Reply to his Defence of the Church Missionary Society, and in Vindication of the Rev. the Archdeacon of Bath, against the Censures contained in that Publication. By the Rev. William Baily Whitehead, A.M. Vicar of Twiverton, near Bath, and late Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. 8vo. pp. 46.

1818.

Rivington and Co. London,

4. A Reply to Mr. Wilson's Defence of the Church Missionary Society. 8vo. pp. 69. Baldwin and Co. London, 1818. 5. A Letter to the Rev. W. B. Whitehead, M.A. Vicar of Twiverton, near Bath, &c. &c. on the Question of Ecclessiastical Jurisdiction over Voluntary Charitable Associations, particularly with Reference to the "Protest" of the Rev. Archdeacon of Bath. By William Albin Garratt, Esq. M.A. Barrister at Law, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. 8vo. pp. 19. Seeley. London, 1818.

6. A Second Protest against the Church Missionary Society; ad dressed to Lord James O'Brien, Chairman to the Committee of the Bath Missionary Association. 8vo. pp. 12. Hatchard, London, 1818.

7. A Letter to the Rev. Josiah Thomas, A.M. Archdeacon of Bath. By a Member of the Church of England. 8vo. pp. 8. Hatchard. London, 1818.

8. Free Thoughts on the Bath Missionary Society, and on the Address to that Assembly, by the Rev. Josiah Thomas, A.M. Archdeacon of Bath. By a Friend to Consistency. 8vo. pp. 15. Higman. Bath, 1818.

9. Counter Protest of a Layman, in Reply to the Protest of Archdeacon Thomas. By George Pryme, Esq. M.A. Barrister at Law, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. 8vo. pp. 16. Hatchard. London, 1818.

10. A brief Defence of the Archdeacon of Bath. By the Author of Free Thoughts. 8vo. pp. 15. Bath, 1818.

11. A Defence of the Protest of the Rev. Archdeacon Thomas, in Reply to the Rev. Daniel Wilson; with Strictures on the Rev. T. T. Biddulph's Letter to the Rev. F. Elwin. By a Member of the Church of England. 8vo. pp. 16. Bristol, 1818.

AMONG the organs with which it seems nature has supplied mankind, craniologists, we believe, have discovered that of quarrelsomeness; and if it be so, it is easy to imagine the high state of development in which this most important appendage to the human system must often be found. It must be by far the most excitable of all our organs. Let us take an example, and it shall be one of the graver kind. Assume, if it be but for the sake of argument, Christianity to be really a revelation from God, and of the highest importance to the temporal and eternal interests of the human race: assume, further, that the volume which reveals it has thrown no hopeful gleam upon the condition of those millions of human beings to whom it has not extended, but that, on the contrary, it has left their destiny untold, in order to excite the compassion, and summon the charitable energies, of those who are themselves in possession of the blessing, and have it in their power to communicate it. Let us assume, further, that the Church of England was founded upon these suppositions, and appointed all its vast apparatus of bishops, deans, archdeacons, &c. down to the humblest curate of a country vicarage, for the express purpose of teaching men the duties, and of conveying to them the benefits of the gospel. Now supposing the fact unascertained, the zeal and energy which might be expected to be displayed by the said personages, on this supposition of Christianity being really true, need not be described. It might be expected naturally to bear a due proportion to their faith in that interesting hypothesis. Now if under these circumstances, a company of benevolent individuals should assemble and contribute their pecuniary assistance towards diffusing to heathen lands the above-mentioned blessings, and who, being admirers of the Church of England, as well as believers

in our common Christianity, should determine that all their conduct, and especially their choice of missionaries and other agents, should be in full conformity with the doctrines and discipline of the Established Church; is it possible to suppose that any just occasion would be given for the display of a litigious spirit on the part even of those gentlemen who might not see fit to join the society? We say nothing of the eagerness with which it might have been anticipated they would take up the cause; we say nothing of the conduct which a firm belief in the universal importance of the Gospel might have been expected to excite; whatever they themselves chose to do or to leave undone, they might at least be expected to be neutrals, if not positive admirers, in reference to the conduct of others more active or benevolent than themselves. At all events, it could not be reasonably anticipated that they should be really angry because some of their brethren had been found to commiserate the heathen, and to be anxious for supplying their spiritual wants.

Yet, unhappily, so irritable on some occasions is the aforesaid organ, that even circumstances like these, circumstances perfectly innocent in all their natural tendency and bearings, have been found to excite no small degree of morbid action. Our readers would scarcely believe us, were not the fact perfectly notorious, that a society whose sole object is the conversion of the heathen, who interfere with no domestic discipline or regulations, who blame no persons for differing from them, or not joining them, who conduct themselves in voluntary and faithful conformity to the established religion, should have been attacked by a dignitary of the Church of England in a public assembly, convened exclusively for its friends (and where, consequently, he had no right to intrude), and this with an asperity of language, and a vehemence of manner, which even a dignitary of a more intolerant church would have scarcely ventured to adopt; yet such was the fact; and the controversy before us proves that it has not passed away unnoticed, or failed to excite the animadversion which it deserved.

We need not inform any of our readers that it was at a meeting convened at Bath on the first of last December, for forming a local association in aid of the "Church Missionary Society, that the Rev. Josiah Thomas, the Archdeacon of that city, obtruded himself upon the assembly, and delivered the speech and protest which form the basis of the present controversy. We need not give our readers any extracts from the Archdeacon's pamphlet, as it has been already sufficiently circulated; yet as it may be important for us to record his arguments in a more permanent shape than the pages of a controversial pamphlet, we venture to admit the following poetical imitation. We are not

quite friends to this mode of conducting hostilities; but as all the Archdeacon's arguments are really given in a manner not less convincing than in his pamphlet itself, we do not hesitate to admit it.

My Lord, the Vice Patron and head of this meeting,
I come as Archdeacon to give you my greeting;
Presuming, as churchmen, you'll grant me the right
To condemn all your measures, and put you to flight.
Not to speak without book is a part of my creed ;-
Instead then of speaking, allow me to read.
But before I advance, as a caution initial,
I'd just have you know that my speech is official;
That I speak as a churchman to churchmen alone
Such truths as your Lordship will scarcely disown,
Though quite out of fashion, and obsolete grown.
Howe'er for your Lordship and others I feel,
Well knowing your laudable virtue and zeal,
Yet I beg to express my conviction imprimis,

That your new-fangled scheme breaks the rule ne quid nimis;
Since another most Christian and wise corporation
Undertakes unrestricted to preach to each nation.
I secondly venture to say for myself

That I hate both your rules, regulations, and pelf.
And, thirdly, I see that subversion and ruin

Will infallibly flow from the scheme you are brewing;
Especially now, when new sects in the Church
Leave us, the old stagers, knee deep in the lurch.
And fourthly, I see the society's path,

If it lie through our peaceable city of Bath,
Will plunge us in feuds and pernicious disorder :-
So much for my text-now for each in its order.
To show your society, first, was not needed,
Another exists, though unknown and unheeded;
Of which both my friends, and myself, might take shame
That we have not supported, and scarce known the name.
I, secondly, state 'tis a point circumstantial

That you stoop to such projects of meanness financial,
(From servants and school-boys, and all that are willing,
Taking farthings and pence till they make up a shilling ;)
That no churchman, whatever his merits or station,
Can stand the effects of such vile degradation;
Especially since to such schemes you resort
As I find in rule sixth of your last year's Report;
By which each collector in country or city
Your sermons may read and attend your committee.
But, thirdly, I said your society tends

To sever our clergy, and Church's best friends;-
Can an evidence stronger be offer'd in proof

Than the scene now occurring beneath this same roof,

Where we see the Lord Bishop of Gloster preside
At a meeting by orthodox churchmen decried,
Disclaim'd by our Bishop, and me the Archdeacon,
Who stand at this day Bath's protector and beacon.
Does the Right Rev'rend Prelate, then, know of this fact?
And if so, by what warrant or rule does he act?
Does he come, to our want of due vigilance trusting,
Into other men's harvests his sickle thus thrusting?

Did he think, good Lord Bishop, that, while he was reaping
The fruits of our labour, we all should be sleeping?
Did he think us, the orthodox clergy, such fools,
As to let him thus slip through canonical rules?
By which, as is doubtless both usual and fit,
E'en Deans to Archdeacons are bound to submit.
Why strive thus to wrench all authority from us
Diocesan Beadon and Archdeacon Thomas?

But you call yourselves friends to the Church by your labours;
Then where, let me ask, are our clerical neighbours ?

Was the meeting unknown, while our journals you're stuffing With octagon sermons and newspaper puffing?

Or did I, the Archdeacon, contrive the prevention,

Who disclos'd not so much as my own wise intention?

But to speak the plain truth, 'tis a whim of new teachers, SERIOUS CHRISTIANS yclep'd EVANGELICAL PREACHERS! And far from promoting religion like mine,

Intelligent, orderly, manly, divine,

Is supported by names, which, though justly respected
On all other accounts, must on this be rejected,
That they live with dissenters as Christians and friends,
Which no churchman can do without sinister ends.
Yet think not I come here my protest to enter
Against any calm conscientious dissenter;
I venerate piety e'en in my nurse,

And honesty love, though I think it perverse.
Respectable men! for they halt not between
Two adverse opinions, as some that I've seen;
They go not about, for they're true to each other,
To rail at the weakness or sins of a brother.-
No, these are perfections of virtue and zeal

Which none but our "serious Christians" can feel.
"Serious Christians!" and whence is this arrogant name
Shall none but themselves the prerogative claim?
"Evangelical Ministers" too-why forsooth

More so than their brethren who speak the same truth,
Profess the same faith, and repeat the same psalter,
Enjoy the same priesthood, and serve the same altar ›--
To the title of churchmen your claim is preferred
On two simple points; I would therefore be heard.
Who is it that stirs up this kettle of porridge?
Doctors Ryder o Gloucester, and Bathurst of Norwich.-